Mithun Chakraborty and Sridevi in the Hindi film Guru

Mithun and Sridevi in their last blockbuster together, the 80s hit Guru. 

A film that didn't age well... 

No kissing please: Sridevi and Mithun

 No kissing please: Sridevi and Mithun 

The Sridevi and Mithun saga: Scandal of the 1980s

As a fan pointed out, we've not addressed the Sridevi and Mithun saga: Scandal of the 1980s. Mostly because its all rumours and innuendo. Neither spoke on record, neither of them addressed it. It was all speculation. And it was published during a time when film journalism was not the source of veracity and accuracy, honest reportage. When Sridevi had gone off the press, she had stated that there was no point in talking to a lot of the media as they would twist and turn her words and she herself would be shocked when the magazines came out. 

So why fan those flames now? 

Posting just the images. The articles are... unreliable at best, libelous at worst. 

Romance Rekindled! Well... no. 

TBT: Jeetendra, Chiranjeevi, Mithun Chakraborthy, Sridevi

TBT to 1987; Jeetendra, Chiranjeevi, Mithun, Sridevi and ? 

The Mithun - Sridevi saga, according to Mithun: And Bollywood Tabloids: Unrequited love in Bollywood in the 1980s!

TBT: Filmfare, Nov 1984. A snippet on the alleged romance/marriage between the two mega stars of Bollywood in the early 1980s, Sridevi and Mithun Chakraborty.

Much tabloid ink was spilled over the alleged romance between the stars but both denied it and stuck to their guns till the very end. All we have now is tabloid gossip lingering in the guise of confirmed news.

For the record, we don't think they ever married - in the eyes of the law or lord - and we have... nothing else to say about it.

However, actor Mithun does. Well, he did back in 1984;

The Mithun-Sridevi rumour is almost at its peak according to Mithun. "I'm not saying anything," he laughs, "because I've been this way before. In the gossip mags, it starts off with attraction, then seeing each other, visiting one another's location, getting married, finally they have two children and then they split. It's all very very routine."

And yet he adds seriously, "What worried me is that I have met Sridevi's entire family. They are an orthodox, well-brought up sort of family and I wonder how they react to the talk that I have even bought a bungalow for her. It's okay for me. I'll survive all this but what about her?"

According to Mithun the rumours started when he likened Sridevi to Vyjanthimala and then added that he had a crush on the latter.  "A lot was read into my statement," he complains. "Sridevi and I have worked together only in one film, Jaag Utha Insan, and we became good friends on location in Guntur, The way I am with everybody. we would all get together (he, Rakesh Roshan, K. Vishwanath) and have fun. Sridevi would often join in. I think she's a wonderful person, a terrific actress and nothing, least of all rumours, linking her with me, will make me change my opinion. The last time I met her, was on the last day of shooting of Jaag Utha Insan. After that I have been out of town and out of the country very often. So where's the question of our meeting?"

Excerpt from Filmfare Jan 1986; 

After struggling for more than a decade, why is he now allowing trivial factors to influence his career? Reportedly, he stopped signing films with Sridevi because of what we journalists had written about him. How could he lose the opportunity to star opposite the most in demand leading lady when everybody else was dying to work with her?

"I am working with each and every heroine. I don't bother about who my heroine is. Ultimately it's the film that runs. So I'm not dying to work opposite her, like you say others are. But let me clarify, it was not me who did the refusing. It was she who made this decision. When I heard that she had withdrawn her name from three films I got the message. So even I started discouraging producers from casting us together. It doesn't make any difference to me if we do films together, or we don't. I don't feel flattered or anything like that to be cast opposite her.

"But now we are doing a film for Gaffar Nadiadwala. When he asked me if I had any preservations. I said 'No' because he had got the okay form her. I will never shoot the gun from her shoulder. If others are doing ti they are welcome to do so." 

Above: the Mithun and Sridevi cold war on set.

Oh! What a Lovely War! 

One thing you have to credit Lady No.1 is professionalism. Despite all those stories about Mithun Chakraborty and all her denials and the subsequent cooling-off, Sridevi is doing two films (A.F. Nadiadwala's yet untitled film and Guru) - even though they give the impression of not being on talking terms.

But as n inebriated lyricist put it at the Guru mahurat bash: "See, Mithun is still desperate to marry Sridevi. But her mother's threatened to disown her. So she doesn't look at him any more and he's just hoping for a change of heart. After all, Hema Malini also kept Dharmendra waiting for years., didn't she?" And you wish lyricists wouldn't babble too much after whiskey. If Mithun and Sridevi look too romantic in these pics taken on the sets of Nadiadwala's film, it's because they are both good performers!

Some of sooooooooo many tabloid headlines from the Sridevi and Mithun Chakraborty chronicles.... 

Star & Style, the cheaper tabloid version of Stardust - had a field day with the Sridevi and Mithun saga. 

Left: Sridevi's alleged quote on the entire biz. Published in Cine Blitz in 1988. I... have sincere doubts about the veracity of the quote, the nameless 'journalist' and the frank and forthcoming statement that seems very unlike the perennially shy Sridevi that most fans know of. 

TBT: Rare pics of Sridevi: Sridevi with Dharmendra, Chunky Pandey, Nutan, Mithun, her mother Rajeshwari

Rare pics of Sridevi found online; Dharmendra, Sridevi and Chunky Pandey flanked by the crew of Naaka Bandi (1990).

Below: Sridevi, Mithun Chakraborthy and Nutan in Guru 

Above: Sridevi with her mother Rajeshwari 

Sridevi's double role in Guru (1989): Playing the Good and the (sort of) Bad Girl

We always seem to forget that in the long list of double-roles Sridevi had in a film, Guru should be right up there. The movie hasn't aged well and we didn't love it but it has its coterie of hardcore fans and, let's not forget, the movie was one of the biggest Mithun - Sridevi box-office blockbusters!

The film is a Hindi remake of a Tamil film, Kamal Haasan's 1985 hit Kaakki Sattai. So the Bollywood version started soon after - but the madcap timetables of the busy stars of the 1980s, Mithun and Sridevi, meant the film was in production for a hell of a long time. Fortunately for the producers, the movie opened well and recovered its costs quickly.

Sridevi however, did not reflect well on the film and famously filed a lawsuit against the producers and director for an objectionable scene in the movie.

Sridevi, Divya Rana, Sunil Dutt and Mithun Chakraborthy

Above: Sridevi, Divya Rana, Sunil Dutt and Mithun Chakraborthy

Below: Mithun with Sridevi 

Sridevi, Divya Rana, Sunil Dutt and Mithun Chakraborthy on the sets of Watan ke Rakhwale (1987)

Sridevi with Mithun Chakraborty in Waqt Ki Awaz

Sridevi and Mithun Chakraborty hit the charts with the song 'Ek do teen chaar - pyar chahiye kitni baar' in Waqt ki Awaz. Click on the images to see much larger pics.

Released on 1 July, 1988.